Universal multi-needle tufting machine



Dec. 22, 1964 A. E. CHARLES UNIVERSAL MULTI-NEEDLE TUFTING MACHINE 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 15, 1960 INVENTOR.

ARTIS E. CHARLES BY (8 l ATTORNEY' a Shets-Sheet 2 Dec. 22, 1964 A. E. CHARLES UNIVERSAL MULTI-NEEDLE TUFTING MACHINE} Filed Feb. 15, 1960 s w Y R M A R H m W E a A m A Dec. 22, 1964 A. E. CHARLES UNIVERSAL MULTI-NEEDLE TUFTING MACHINE 6 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Feb. 15, 1960 INVENTOR. ARTIS E. CHARLES ATTORNEY Dec. 22, 1964 A. E. CHARLES 3,162,155

' UNIVERSAL MULTI-NEEDLE TUFTING MACHINE Filed Feb. 15, 1960 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 85 86 @81 I 80 in mmvron: ARTIS E. CHARLES ATTORNEY Dec. 22, 1964 A. E. CHARLES UNIVERSAL. MULTI-NEEDLE TUFTING MACHINE 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Feb. 15, 1960 FIG. 1 1

FIG. 10

F I G. 13

FIG. 12

F IG.15

FIG. 14

INVENTOR. ARTIS E. CHARLES ATTORNEY Dec. 22, 1964 A. E. CHARLES UNIVERSAL MULTI-NEEDLE TUFTING MACHINE 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed Feb. 15, 1960 2 4 H 3 3 m A 3 INVENTOR. ARTIS E. CHARLES ATTORNEY United States Patent Office 3,162,155 UNIVERSAL MULTI-NEEDLE TUFTING MACHINE Artis E. Charles, Chatsworth Road, Dalton, Ga. Filed Feb. 15, 196i), Ser. No. 8,645 14 Claims. (Cl. 112-79) This invention relates to a universal multi-needle tufting machine and is more particularly concerned with apparatus for forming high-low tufted pile fabric, with cut or loop piles or a combination thereof.

In the past many and various devices have been devised for producing a design in pile fabric. In the earlier days of the tufting industry, a pattern was formed in the base fabric by overlaying or by using different needles to form different lengths of loops. The more modern developments, however, include the well known high-low loop pile machines such as those developed by John H. Boyles and Joe H. Nix. The pattern attachments of these machines have taken various forms, such as variable speed rollers, arrest solenoids, and interrneshing slats, all of which vary the feed of the yarn to rob selectively certain loops as the needles sew and can only produce high-low loop pile fabric.

Other advances in the art include the combination cut and loop pile machines wherein selected loops are transferred from the looper and those retained on the looper are cut.

Attempts have been made to vary the height of selected loopers and thereby attain different pile heights; however, such machines to my knowledge have not proved successful.

Attempts to make patterned cut pile fabric have also not proved satisfactory in the past. Such pattern cut pile machines which have heretofore been developed usually include knives which shear the ends of the loops after they have been formed. The shearing of loops is wasteful, since about twenty percent of the yarn in the sheared loop must be discarded, and usually results in a rough finished product.

Prior to the present invention, however, no multineedle tufting machine has been produced wherein the travel of the needles has been varied during the operation of the machine.

Briefly, the present invention includes the customary multi-needle tufting machine frame and the horizontally disposed, vertically reciprocable needle carrier or holding block within which are slidably arranged the various transversely aligned needle assemblies. A plurality of cam members, each associated with one or more needles, control the positions of the various needle assemblies whereby the needles may be protracted or retracted with respect to the needle carried upon actuation of the appropriate cam member.

Associated with the respective needles are the double loopers which may take various forms depending upon the type of pile to be produced. For the purpose of this disclosure, each double looper includes two hooks, one above the other. If the fabric is to be high-low cut pile, a knife is operated in conjunction with each double looper, the loopers being arranged facing against the travel of the fabric. If high-low loop pile is to be produced, the knives are not needed; however, the loopers face in an opposite direction so as to release the loops after they have been formed.

The high-low cut pile sewn according to the present 3,162,5 5 Patented Dec. 22, 1964 invention involves no loss of yarn due to shearing, and results in a very inexpensive patterned pile fabric because the cut piles spread out to cover more area than would equivalent loop piles.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that when a pattern is not desired, the present machine may be operated as a simple cut pile machine or a simple loop pile machine.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a versatile tufting machine capable of producing high-low pile fabric of various types.

Another object of the present invention is to produce a rnulti-needle tufting machine which is practical and efiicient and yet is inexpensive to manufacture and durable in construction.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a machine capable of producing in a continuous fashion at low cost high-low cut pile fabric.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a machine capable of producing in a continuous fashion high-low loop pile fabric.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a machine capable of producing in a continuous fashion a combination high-cut low-loop pile fabric.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multi-needle tufting machine in which each needle or group of needles is individually controllable so as to pro duce a wide variety of predetermined designs in pile fabric.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multi-needle tuf-ting machine which may be readily modified to produce cut or loop pile goods in high and low piles or a combination thereof.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multi-needle tufting machine which employs many standard parts and to which existing machines may be modified without great expense.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and novel looper for multi-needle tufting machines.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and novel high-low cut pile fabric.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like characters of reference designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front view, partially broken away, of a multi-needle tufting machine constructed in accordance with the present invention, the machine being adapted to produce hi gh-low cut pile fabric.

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view taken along line 2-2 in PEG. 1.

MG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of a detail showing the supporting block for the needles and a portion of the mechanism of the machine for vary' ing the positions of the needles.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the cam' member of the machine shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of the needle assembly of the machine shown in FIG, 1.

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5 and showing an alternate needle assembly.

FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view of the needle carrier a and a portion of the mechanism of the machine for varying the positions of the needles.

FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view taken along one end portion of the machine shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 9 is a cross sectional view taken along the other end portion of the machine shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 10 is a side elevational view of one of the double hook loopers constructed in accordance with the present invention and employed in the machine shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 11 is an enlarged fragmentary end View of the hooks of the looper shown in FIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is a cross sectional view similar to the view shown in FIG. 2 and showing the present machine modilied to sew high-low loop pile.

FIG. 13. is a cross sectional view similar to the view shown in FIG. 9, the mechanism thereof being modified to sew high-low loop pile.

FIG. 14 is a perspective view of the high-low cut pile fabric; produced in accordance with the present invention on the machine shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. is a perspective view of the high-low loop pile fabric produced on the modified machine of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a cross sectional View similar to FIGS. 2 and 12 but showing the present machine modified to produce high-cut pile, low-loop pile fabric.

FIG. 17 is a cross sectional view similar to FIGS. 9 and 13, the mechanism being modified to produce highcut pile, low-loop pile fabric.

FIG. 18 is a schematic plan view of the machine of the present invention arranged to sew rows of yarn more closely together than the spacing between adjacent needles, the infeed and outfeed rolls thereof being arranged to feed the base fabric at an angle with respect to the line of needles.

FIG. 19 is a perspective view of the high-cut pile lowloop pile fabric produced on the machine of FIGS. 16 and 17.

Referring now in detail to the embodiments chosen for the purpose of illustrating the present invention, it being understood, however, that the drawings depict but a few of the embodiments of the present invention and it is not intended that the invention, in its broader aspects, be limited to the exact details herein. depicted, numeral 10 denotes the legs of a multi-needle tufting machine. The legs 10 support a transverse cross bed 11 which is hollow, having a transverse upper opening 12 between its inwardly turned opposed upper flanges 13, 13. Mounted at opposite ends of the cross bed 11 are upstanding stanchions or end frames 14 and 15 which support a crosshead member 16 within which extends the horizontal overhead drive shaft 17 appropriately supported by bearings. The shaft 17 extends outwardly of the end of the crosshead member 16. and is provided with a pulley 18 around which are continuous \i-belts 19. The V-belts 19 are, in turn, driven by pulley 20 connected to the shaft of a motor 21. The motor 21 is supported on a bracket 22 extending from one of legs 10.

Along the shaft 17 there are provided a plurality of eccentrically mounted circular cams, such as cam 23, in FIG. 2. Each cam 23 is concentric with respect to the, other similar cams and receives a connecting rod bearing, such as hearing 24, from which extends the connectingrod 25. The crosshead member 16 is provided with a plurality of spaced, downwardly extending journal members 26 which receive for slidable movementneedle bar supporting rods 27. The upper ends of supporting rods 27 are pivotally joined to the ends of the connecting rods while the lower ends of the supporting rods 27 support a transverse needle bar 28 above the upper opening 12.

Upon rotation of motor 22, the belts 19 will rotate through pulley 18 the drive shaft 17 and thereby reciprocate through cams 23 the connecting rods 25. The reciprocation of connecting rods 25 will reciprocate the 4 supporting rods 27 which reciprocate in a vertical path the needle bar 28.

Mounted on one side of the cross bed 11 and being supported by appropriate brackets 29 are the two infeed rolls 30 and 31. T he outfeed rolls 32, 33 and 34 extend from the opposite side of cross bed 11 and are supported between brackets 35. The rolls 3t), 31, 32, 33 and 34 are driven by means of chains and sprockets, such as chains 36, 36' and sprockets 37, 37', the chains 36, as being driven by central sprocket 38 connected in the customary way from the main drive shaft 17. As is conventional, the infeed rolls 3t and 31 are driven at a slightly less peripheral speed than the outfeed rolls 32, 33 and 34 so as to maintain the base fabric 40 in tension across the cross bed 11 as the base fabric 46 is fed in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 2. The usual base plate 39 is located on flange 13 and extends over a portion of the opening 12.

The mechanism heretofore described is conventional in most multi-needle tufting machines and hence those skilled in the art will understand the purposes and construction of the various components.

Needle Carrier It will be understood that in the usual tufting machine a plurality of fixed needles are arranged along the needle bar 28 to penetrate the base fabric 49 a fixed distance. According to the present invention, however, the penetration of the needles varies. The mechanism for accomplishing this purpose includes a needle supporting block denoted generally by the letter B which is co-extensive with the needle bar 28 and is secured along the bottom surface of the needle bar 28 by bolts 41, or the like, passing downwardly through the needle bar 28 and into the block B. The needle bar 28 and supporting block B constitute the needle carrier.

In more detail, the needle supporting block B, as shown in FIG. 3, is produced from a long, rectangular solid metal block having a fiat upper surface 42 and a fiat lower surface 43. The lower and intermediate portions of the front side of the metal block are milled away in step-like fashion so as to leave an upper block 44, which supports the yarn arresting mechanism to be described hereinafter, and an intermediate shoulder 45 spaced below and to one side of the upper block 44. A plurality of evenly spaced vertical bores 46, 46 passing from the upper surface 42 through block B to the shoulder 45 are provided throughout the length of the block B. These bores 46, 46' are preferably alternately staggered to provide two or more rows of bores 4-6, 46' each here being about A inch in diameter and being arranged so that the distance between adjacent centers is about 5 inch. If one control per group of two or more needles is desired, or if the needles are to be spaced more widely apart than inch, the distance between centers of adjacent bores 46 of course may be increased, and in such instances a single row of aligned bores 46 may be provided.

The lower and intermediate portions of the back side of block B are also milled away to provide, along the lower part of block B, a cam carrying member 47 extending from the plane of shoulder 45 to the lower surface 43. The milling away of the other side of block B also leaves a lever carrying member 4% transversely opposite the upper block 44.

A plurality of transverse downwardly opening cam receiving slots, respectively aligned with bores 46, 4e, are provided in cam carrying block 47 while a plurality of inwardly directed open ended lever receiving slots 50 aligned with slots 49 are provided in the lever carrying member 43. Thus it is seen that along each of a plurality of evenly spaced vertically parallel transverse planes there are provided a bore 46 or 46, a cam receiving slot 49, and a lever receiving slot 5?).

Needle Assemblies Within each bore 46, 46' is a guide means or plunger, such as plungers 51, 51; the function of which is to slide vertically in the bores 46 or 46. The lower end of the plungers 51 and 51' project below shoulder 45 and are provided at their lower extremity with a control means, such as control fingers 52, 52' projecting respectively through the aligned slots 49. The control fingers 52, 52' are in horizontal planes and act to determine the position of the respective needle assemblies. Projecting downwardly from the control fingers 52, 52' are the conventional tufting needles 53.

Referring now to FIGS. 5 and 6, it will be seen that in that embodiment of the present invention, there is a slight difference between alternate needle assemblies. As seen in FIG. 6, each needle assembly which cooperates with one of bores 46, 46 in one row has the plunger 51 aligned with the needle 53 on finger 52, while, as seen in FIG. 5, each needle assembly which cooperates with a bore 46' of the next row has a plunger 51 which is parallel to but offset from its needle 53 on finger 52, the finger 52' being slightly longer than the finger 52.

Cum Members Carried Within the slots 49 are the cam members 54, each of which is a thin, flat, bifurcated metal plate about the thickness of finger 52 and having an upper arm 55 and a lower arm 56 spaced apart by an open ended finger receiving slot 57 within which the finger 52 or 52 is slidably carried. The upper arm 55 is provided with a beveled end having a straight downwardly and outwardly projecting upper camming surface 53. The end portion of lower arm 56 is provided with a downwardly projecting flange 59 along the inner surface of which is a lower straight camming surface 60 angling forwardly and downwardly parallel to the camming surface 58. At the lower extremity of the lower camming surface 64) is a shoulder 61 which is parallel to slot 57. Outwardly beyond the shoulder 61 is a stop 62, as will be shown hereinafter, which limits the rearward travel of the cam member 54.

Cooperating with the upper camming surface 58 is a hardened steel insert 63 received within a slot running the length of the block B. The insert 63 has a beveled outer corner forming the upper corner of the slot 49, while cooperating with the lower camming surface 69 is a longitudinally extending rod 64 which extends across each slot 49 throughout the cam carrying member 47. Therefore, when the cam member 54 is urged inwardly, the upper camming surface 58 acting against the beveled corner of insert 63 urges the cam member 54 downwardly and conversely when the cam member 54 is urged outwardly, the lower camming surface 60 acting against rod 64 urges the cam member 54 upwardly.

It will be observed that the fingers 52 and 52' are always maintained in a horizontal position by their plungers 51, 51. Also, the fingers 52, 52' are snugly but slidably received within the slots 57. Therefore, the cam members 54 are always retained in horizontal position by fingers 52, 52', and will not be rotated by the cam surfaces 58 and 60.

Pattern Control Means For moving the respective cam members 54 inwardly and outwardly whereby the fingers 52, 52' are moved upwardly and downwardly, respectively, I have provided a plurality of levers '70 carried respectively within the lever receiving slots 50 and pivotally mounted on a longitudinally extending common pivot pin 71 which passes through lever carrying member 48. The levers 70 are normally aligned along a vertical plane parallel to the plane of needles 53. The upper ends of the levers 70 are provided with eyelets 72 while the lower ends of levers 70 are provided with rounded portions 73. Preferably the lower arms of the levers 70 are about twice the length 6 of the upper arms thereof to provide a mechanical advantage.

As will be best seen in FIGS. 3 and 7, each rounded portion 73 of the levers rides in an upwardly opening slot 74 in cam member 54. Thus, when any lever 70 is rotated in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in FIGS. 3 and 7, the lever 70 will move its associated cam member 54 inwardly, thereby moving it downwardly so as to carry with it its associated finger 52 or 52. The finger 52 or 52, in turn, moves its needle 53 downwardly. On the other hand, when a lever 79 is returned to its original position by rotation in a clockwise direction, its cam member 54 is moved outwardly and upwardly, thereby moving its finger 52 or 52' upwardly. The finger 52 or 52 therefore retracts its needle 53. This selective adjustment of the needles 53 causes high or low loops to be formed, as will be pointed out in more detail later.

For actuating the levers 74} according to a predetermined pattern or design, cables or wires, such as wire 75, are connected through the eyelets 72 to the respective levers 70 while springs, such as spring 76, are connected through appropriate holes, such as hole 77, to the respective cam members 54. The ends of the wires 75 extend in parallel horizontal paths rearwardly of the machine and are connected to eyebolts 78 on the ends of the pattern detecting levers 79. The end of the springs 76 also connects in tension to the eyebolts 7 8.

A longitudinal rod 84} passing through all levers 79 provides support for the levers 79 and is supported itself by brackets 81 on the drum supporting arms 82 which project rearwardly from the crosshead member 16. Reinforcing struts 83 extending between the crosshead member 16 and the end of drum supporting arms 82 strengthen the arms 82.

At the end of arms 82 and outwardly of the levers 79 are pillow blocks 84 which support thereoetween a shaft 85. Mounted on this shaft 85 is a pattem drum 86 which is rotated in synchronization with the rotation of shaft 17 by a continuous chain 87 extending between sprockets 88 and 89 respectively on shafts 85 and the shaft of roll 34. The drum 86, of course, is rotated at a much lower speed than the rotation of shaft 17, the speed being preferably equal to the peripheral speed of the outfeed rolls 32, 33 and 34.

Along the periphery of the drum 86 are raised areas 90 which determine when the high loops are to be sewn. These raised areas 90 and the intermediate low areas of the drum 86 are contacted by aligned sensing fingers, such as finger 91, which extend from the upper ends of the respective levers 79 and are spaced from each other axially along the periphery of drum 86. The springs '76 maintain the fingers 91 in contact with the periphery of drum 86 by urging the levers 79 in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 2. As the drum 86 is rotated, the raised areas 90 of the drum 36 will rock the levers 79 in a clockwise direction thereby urging the selected wire, such as wire 75, to the left in FIG. 2. Thus, the associated lever 70 will be rotated in a counterclockwise direction so that its needle 53 will be lowered. Conversely, when a sensing finger 91 of a particular lever 79 rides inwardly off of the raised area 90, the spring 76 rotates the lever 70 in a clockwise direction and hence the associated needle 53 is raised.

As seen in FIG. 8, the synchronized rotation of drum 86 and the rolls 3t), 31, 32, 33 and 34 at low speed with respect to main shaft 17 is achieved by means of a gear reducer 95 driven from the main shaft 17 by a chain 96 extending around sprockets 99 and 97 on the main shaft 17 and the gear reducer 95 respectively. The output shaft 98 carries the sprockets 38.

High-Low Cut Pile Looper Mechanism The looper mechanism which is in the cross bed 11 and is thus located on an opposite side of the fabric 40 from the needles 53 includes the looper shaft 100 which is to be reciprocated back and forth in the usual timed sequence. The looper shaft 1% is aligned vertically with the needles 53 below the maximum depth of penetration of the needles 53 into the cross bed 11 and extends the entire length of cross bed 11.

As seen in FIG. 9, the shaft 100 is driven from the main shaft 17 by means of a pitman 101 which is driven by a circular cam 1'02 eccentrically on shaft 17. The other end of pit-man 1111 pivotally connects to a slotted lever 103 extending radially from shaft 1%. The slot in lever 103 permits the adjusting of the throw of shaft 1%.

A knife actuating shaft 1% runs parallel to shaft 109 and is adapted to operate in synchronization with shaft 190. The means for synchronizing the two shafts 112i) and 104 includes a lever 1115 on shaft 100 and a lever 1% on shaft 1134, the twolevers 1'95 and .106 being interconnected by a link 107. Thus, when shaft 1th) is rocked in a counterclockwise direction, shaft 164 is also rocked in the same direction, and vice versa.

As seen in FIG. 2, shaft 100 is provided with spaced transverse upstanding support ribs, such as rib 108, which are secured in alignment along the length of shaft 1% by bolts, such as bolts 109. A looper carrying blocklll) is carried on the end of ribs 1118 and a plurality of aligned loopers, such as looper 111, are carried in block 1181. It

'will be understood by those skilled in the art that there is one looper beneath each needle 53. It will also be understood that shaft 101 is appropriately journaled between the ribs 108.

H igh-Low Cut Pile Looper The looper 111 is of novel construction and is formed from a flat piece of metal stamped in the configuration shown in FIG. 10. In more detail, the looper 111 includes a base 112 which is to be carried in the looper block 1111. The shank 113 of the looper 111 extends upwardly and rearwardly at an obtuse angle from the base 112. Extending at an acute angle over base 112 from the upper end portion of the shank 113 is the lower looper hook 114 with its downwardly turned end 115. The upper looper hook 116 is also mounted on the end portion of shank 113 in spaced relationship to the lower hook 114- and extends essentially parallel thereto so as to define an open ended slot 117 therebetween. The upper looper 116 contains a downwardly projecting end 118 which is aligned vertically with the hook end 115. As seen in FIG. 11, one side of each of the end portions of both looperhooks 114 and 116 converges toward the other side thereof so as to provide a point at the end of each hook for penetration between the needle '3 and the yarn 121 fed to the needle 53.

Along the inner lower portion of looper hook 116 at about the bend 119 of the inner closed end of slot 117, the looper 111 is provided with a cutting surface. A similar cutting surface is formed along the lower surface of looper hook 11 at about the. bend 12%) forming the junction between looper hook 114 and shank 113. The loops of yarns 121, when received on the loopers 111, collect on the upper and lower looper hooks 114 :and 116 and will be pulled inwardly of loopers 111 to the region of bends 119 and 120 for being severed.

On the knife shaft 104 are a plurality of collars, such as collar 122, which support a knife carrying block 123, from which project the knives, such as knife 124. Each knife 124 is of usual construction having its upper end sharpened so as to pass upwardly along a smooth side surface of the looper 111 and sever those loops of yarn 121 which are collected at the bends 119 and 121 of the lower and upper looper hooks 114 and 116 upon each cycle of the machine. It will be understood that in this particular embodiment, each looper 111 is provided with a knife 124.

Yarn Feed Mechanism In the present type of tufting machine it is desirable,

in order to form even pile heights, that prescribed amounts of yarn be fed to the needles in accordance with the demands of the various needles 53 and that there be no inadvertent backdrawing of the yarns 121, due to tension of the yarns between the creel (not shown) and the machine. To accomplish this, I have provided a yarn feed mechanism incorporated into the upper block 44. It wil be understood by those skilled in the art that the feed mechanism may be mounted at any place along the reciprocating part of the machine whereby the yarn feed mechanism will travel with the needle carrier so that upon each downstroke, enough yarns will be drawn from the creel to provide the long loops and that on the upstroke, the loopers 111 will hold the desired amount of yarns as the feed mechanism travels upwardly with respect to the yarns 121.

In more detail, the block 44 is provided with vertically disposed forwardly opening slots 13% aligned respectively with the slots 50 and bores 46, 46'. A rod 131 passed through block 4 4 provides a common pivot for a plurality of arresting fingers, such as finger 132, seen in FIG. 7. Each finger 132 extends inwardly and downwardly toward the surface portion of block 4-4 defining the inner end of slot 131 so as to impinge against the yarn 1.21 feed between the blunt point of the finger 132 and that inner surface. Wire springs, such as spring 133, carried by a common shaft 134 and acting against shaft 135 urge the fingers 132 upwardly, so that at all times the yarns 121 are resiliently clamped between the surface at the inner end of 'slots 130 and the blunt point of the fingers 132.

Cooperating with the yarn feed mechanism so as to retain the yarns 121 in essentially vertical positions for the incremental feeding to the needles 53 is a guide bar 14% mounted on the crosshead member 16 above the block 44. This guide bar extends forwardly of the machine in a horizontal plane and is provided with a plurality of holes 141 through which the various yarns 121 are fed to the feed mechanism. The holes 121 are respectively disposed in the vertical planes of the various slots 130 whereby the yarns 121 extend parallel to each other toward the respective slots 131.

When a yarn 121 is held by the looper 111 and its needle 53, as Well as the block B, is moved upwardly, the yam 121 will be pulled downwardly with respect to the finger 132. This downward pull of the yarn 121 tends to pivot the finger 132 about rod 131 in a counterclockwise direction against the force of spring 133 tending to rotate finger 132 in a clockwise direction as seen in FIG. '7. This, of course, widens the space between the blunt point of the finger 132 and the inner surface at the end of the slot 131). Thus, the yarn may be pulled downwardly with respect to the feed mechanisrn. If, however, there is tension on the yard 121 above the feed mechanism and the yarn 121 is not positively pulled downwardly, the yarn 121 will tend to urge the finger 132 in the clockwise direction; i.e., in the direction in which the spring 133 urges the finger 132. This, of course, binds the blunt point of the finger 132 more firmly against the inner surface and clamps the yarn in place so that substantially no backdrawing of yarn 121 is possible.

High-Low Cut Pile Fabric With the mechanism heretofore described, the product, such as shown in FIG. 14, is produced. This product includes the base fabric :18 having high tufts and low tufts 151. In the product, the high and low tufts 152 and 153, which are formed by successive increments of a single yarn 121, are in alignment longitudinally of fabric 49, being sewn by a single needle 53. The next adjacent line of tufts which includes the high tufts I54 and low tufts are essentially aligned, both transversely and longitudinally of the first row of tufts 152 and 153 even through, depending upon the design configuration, tufts may be either high or low at any place in a row.

By being able to produce successive high and low cut tufts or piles from successive increments of the same yarn in aligned rows utilizing the apparatus heretofore described, a very uniform pile height is achieved which was heretofore believed to be impossible or impractical. Also, the tufts in a single row in the product of FIG. 14 will usually have uniform characteristics, any variation in the physical characteristics between adjacent tufts of a single row, such as texture, twist, size and the like, usually are of a uniformly varying nature, essentially undetectable by the human eye. Further, dye absorption should be relatively constant between adjacent tufts, or uniformly varying, if any variation is present.

The even distribution of the tufts which is possible with the present apparatus provides a high quality, low cost product.

High-Low Loop Pile Looper If it is desired to modify the present machine to produce high-low loop pile, a shaft 101) is substituted for shaft 190 and loop pile loopers, such as the double looper 111, are substituted for the cut pile loopers 111. The loop pile looper 111 must be facing in a direction opposite the direction of travel of fabric 49 while just the converse is true with respect to the cut pile loopers 111. Also, the loop pile loopers 111 must also rock in an opposite direction from the rock of the cut pile loopers 1111, thereby permitting loop pile loopers 111' to engage the respective loops of yarns 121 when the needles 53 are just past bottom dead center and withdraw from the path of the yarn after the needles 53 have just passed top dead center.

In more detail, the mechanism for accomplishing this purpose includes, as shown in FIG. 13, a cam 102' on shaft 17, a pitman 101', and a lever 1113' connected together in the usual way. The lever 103' is connected to shaft 100' to provide the rocking motion upon rotation of shaft 17. The loop pile loopers 111' are carried on the looper block 110' which, in turn, is carried by the ribs such as rib 1&8.

The loop pile looper 111 is essentially a mirror copy of the looper 111 shown in FIGS. and 11, except that no cutting surface is necessary and the ends 115 and 1118 need not be provided.

With such an arrangement, a product such as shown in FIG. is produced having a base fabric 40 with tufts of high loops 160 and low loops 161 aligned transversely and longitudinally of fabric 40.

H igh-Cut Low-Loop Looper Mechanism If it is desired to provide a high-cut pile, low-loop pile, two separate loopers should be employed, the loopers facing each other. For this purpose, in place of the looper mechanism the machine of the present invention is provided with cut pile looper shaft 200 and a loop pile looper shaft 261 as seen in FIGS. 16 and 17. The two shafts are linked together by levers 202 and 203 extending respectively radially from shafts 200 and 201, a link 204 connecting the two. Cooperating with the cut pile looper shaft 200 is the knife shaft 265 which is linked to the aforesaid shafts 200 and 2111 by levers 2116 and 207 interconnected by link 208. A pitman 209 operated 'by the circular cam 21!) and connected to lever 211 on shaft 261 provides power for these shafts. The cut pile looper shaft 200 is provided with the usual cut pile loopers 212 having cooperating knives extending from the knife shaft 205. The cut pile loopers 212 face the travel of fabric 40.

The loop pile loopers 213 on shaft 261 are also of usual construction except that their hooks are arranged above the cut pile loopers 212 so that low loops and high cut pile are formed by the respective loopers 212 and 213. if the hooks of the cut pile loopers 212 were above the books of the loop pile loopers 213, the loop 18 would be transferred from one looper to the other, which would result in a high-low cut pile arrangement. Therefore, it is important, according to this particular embodi ment, to provide the hook of the loop pile looper 213 above the hook of the cut pile looper 212, unless, of course, high-low cut pile is desired.

The high-cut low-loop pile fabric produced on the particular embodiment here discussed is illustrated in FIG. 19 and includes rows of tufts aligned transversely and longitudinally, each row including successive increments of a single yarn 121 forming high cut tufts 250 and low loop tufts 251 on the base fabric 40.

Close Dispersion Mechanism with respect to the line of travel of the fabric 40.

In FIG. 18 the particular arrangement is illustrated diagrammatically since no major modifications to the machine are involved except, of course, arranging the rolls 3%), 31, 32, 33 and 34, as aforesaid.

In such an arrangement, the base fabric 40 will be of less width than the usual base fabric employed in the machine, since the transverse distance between the ends of the row of needles 53 projected transversely of the base fabric 49 will be the function of the angle oz. Thus, if the distance between the ends of the needles is D and the width of the fabric to be sewn is W, the following formula will set forth the relationship:

W=D cos a X=Y sin a where X is the advance circumferentially for a given needle and Y is the distance between the leading needle and the particular needle involved.

Operation From the foregoing description, the operation of the present multi-needle tufting machine is apparent. First, yarns, such as yarn 121, are fed from a creel (not shown) through each arresting mechanism, between the fingers 132 and the end of the slot 130. Next each yarn 121 is threaded through its needle 53. Thereafter the base fabric 40 is fed through the infeed rolls 30 and 31, across the flanges 13, 13' and over the bed plate 38 and opening 12 to the outfeed rolls 33, 34 and 35, as is customary. Thereafter the motor 22 is energized to drive V-belts 19 and thereby rotate shaft 17. The rotation of shaft 17 simultaneously actuates the rolls 30, 31, 32, 33 and 34 to move the base fabric 40 slowly across the cross bed 11. At the same time, the rotation of shaft 17 causes reciprocation of the needle bar 28 as described above. Also, the rotation of shaft 17 causes both looper shafts 101) and 104 to rock back and forth and the drum 86 to rotate slowly at the peripheral speed of rolls 32, 33 and 34.

The reciprocation of needle bar 28 causes the needles 53 to reciprocate with a uniform amplitude to insert the yarns 121 through the base fabric 40 to form loops of yarn upon each penetration of the needles 53, the loops being essentially aligned transversely and longitudinally of base fabric 40. With all the needles 53 in either the retracted position or the protracted position, the needles 53 penetrate the base fabric as to a predetermined depth and all needles 53 enter the base fabric substantially simultaneously. With certain of the needles 53 being protracted downwardly, the amplitude of the reciprocation of the needles is not changed; however, the protracted needles will enter the fabric 4% slightly before the retracted needles will enter the fabric 46 and will be withdrawn from the fabric 44) after the retracted needles are withdrawn. Also, the protracted needles will penetrate the base fabric to a greater predetermined depth than the penetration of the retracted needles.

The rotation of the drum 85 will move the periphery of the drum 86 with respect to the aligned fingers 91. When a sensing finger 91 is riding on a raised area 9% of the periphery of drum 86, the cam member 54 is withdrawn, thereby retracting upwardly its associated needle 53, as described above. ing finger 91 is riding on a low portion of the periphery of drum 86, its associated needle 53 will be projected downwardly. Therefore, usually at a given time, some of the needles 53 will be protracted downwardly while others will be retracted upwardly, determined, of course, by the configuration axially along drum 86 at the line of the sensing fingers 91.

When the needles are moved downwardly by the needle bar 23 to the bottom dead center position of the machine, those needles 5'3 which are protracted will have inserted their yarn loops below the arc of travel of the lower looper hook 114; while, simultaneously, those needles 53 which are in the retracted position will have inserted their yarn loops below the arc of travel of the upper looper hook 116 but not below the arc of travel of the lower looper hooks 114. i

As the needles 53 begin to be moved upwardly, the loopers 111 are moved by shaft 180 in a clockwise direction, thereby inserting the upper hook 116 of all loopers 111 between the body of all needles 53 and their respective yarns while, at the same time, inserting the lower hook 114 of the associated looper 111 between the yarn and needle body of only those needles 53 which are Conversely, when a sensprotracted. Thus, as the needles 53 are withdrawn, the

loops so formed are restrained substantially the full length of their insertion by loopers 111, the loops retained on the upper hooks 116 forming short loops and the loops retained on the lower hooks 114 forming long loops. As the cycle continues, the loopers 111 rock in a counterclockwise direction and move out of the path of the needles 53. With the next and subsequent cycles, additional loops of yarn are formed as described above, and collected on the hooks 114 and 116.

It will be remembered that as shaft 1% rocks, the knife shaft 104 also rocks so as to move the knives 122 in an upward and downward arcuate path such that the cutting edge of each knife 122'cuts those loops which have been collected on the lower and upper hooks 114 and 116, after the same have been carried by the base fabric 45 to the inner bends 123 and 124. The knife 122,

of course, cuts the lower or high loops in its path on the lower hook 114 and shortly thereafter cuts the upper or short loops in its path on the upper hook 116.

It will be understood that the predetermined pattern on the periphery of drum 3% determines whether a loop, to be formed, will be a high loop or a low loop and therefore whether the yarn will form a high cut pile or a low cut pile.

It is essentially immaterial to the satisfactory operation of the present device whether the drum 86 is exactly synchronized with shaft 17 since, regardless of where in the cycle a protract-ion of retraction of a needle 53 occurs,

one or the other of the hooks 114 or 116 will engage the loop and a subsequent cycle should find such a needle 53 in a fully. protracted or retracted position.

If it is desired to produce high-low loop pile fabric such as shown in FIG. 15, the mechanism is altered to conform to the structures shown in FIGS. 12 and 13.

With the machine operating, the loopers lll are moved toward the needles 53 immediately after the needles 553 pass bottom dead center and away from the needles 53 immediately after the needles 53 pass top dead center. Thus, the loops of yarns 121 are held by the loo-per hooks 11d and 116 as the needles 53 move upwardly and are released as the needles 53 move downwardly, the loops being pulled by the fabric out of the hooks 114 and 116. it will be understood that the loops formed by the projected needles 53 are engaged and held temporarily by looper hooks lid and the loops formed by the retracted needles 53 are engaged and held temporarily by the looper hooks lie. Thus, a predetermined pattern formed by high and low loops is produced by retracting and protracting selected needles 53.

If it is desired to produce a high-cut pile low-loop pile, such as shown in FIG. 19, the machine is modified to conform with the structure shown in FIGS. 16 and 17. This arrangement permits both the cut pile looper 212 and the loop pile looper 213 to move toward each other between the needle body of a needle 53 and the yarns 121 whereby if the needle 53 is projected the cut pile looper 212 catches the loop and if needle 53 is retracted the loop pile looper 213 catches the loop. Of course, all loops on the cut pile looper are cut by knife 214 while all loops on the loop pile looper are subsequently pulled off of the looper as the subsequent loop is formed.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that many variations may be made in the embodiments chosen for the purpose of illustrating the present invention without departing from the scope thereof as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a multi-needle tufting machine of the type having a needle bar reciprocated at uniform amplitude, and a plurality of needles carried by said needle bar for reciprocation therewith to insert yarns through a base fabric fed beneath said needles to form loops, the combination with said needles of control means connected between said needle bar and said needles for protracting and retracting selectively said needles along the path of their reciprocation, means synchronized with the feed of said base fabric for actuating said control means, and looper means beneath said fabric for engaging the loops formed by said yarns.

2. In a multi-needle tufting machine of the type having a needle bar reciprocated at uniform amplitude, and a plurality of needles carried by said needle bar for reciprocation therewith to insert yarns to form loops through a base fabric fed beneath said needles, the combination with said needles of control means connected between said needle bar and said needles for projecting and retracting selectively said needles along the path of their reciprocation, looper means for engaging the loops formed by said yarns, and means for cutting said loops when engaged by said looper means.

3. In a multi-needle tufting machine of the type having a needle bar reciprocated at uniform amplitude, and a plurality of needles carried by said needle bar for reciprocation therewith to insert yarns to form loops through a base fabric fed beneath said needles, the combination with said needles of control means connected between said needle bar and said needles for protracting and retracting selectively said needles along the path of their reciprocation, and means synchronized with the feed of said base fabric for actuating said control means, looper means arranged below said fabric for engaging the loops of yarn on the protracted needles when the loops are inserted through said fabric and for restraining these loops from being withdrawn therefrom upon withdrawal of their needles, and other looper means operating in conjunction with said firs-t mentioned looper means for engaging the loops of yarns on the retracted needles when the loops are inserted through said fabric and for restraining these loops from being withdrawn therefrom upon withdrawal of their needles.

By being able to produce successive high and low cut tufts or piles from successive increments of the same yarn in aligned rows utilizing the apparatus heretofore described, a very uniform pile height is achieved which was heretofore believed to be impossible or impractical. Also, the tufts in a single row in the product of FIG. 14 will usually have uniform characteristics, any variation in the physical characteristics between adjacent tufts of a single row, such as texture, twist, size and the like, usually are of a uniformly varying nature, essentially undetectable by the human eye. Further, dye absorption should be relatively constant between adjacent tufts, or uniformly varying, if any variation is present.

The even distribution of the tufts which is possible with the present apparatus provides a high quality, low cost product.

High-Low Loop Pile Looper If it is desired to modify the present machine to produce high-low loop pile, a shaft 190' is substituted for shaft 1% and loop pile loopers, such as the double looper 111', are substituted for the cut pile loopers 111. The loop pile looper 111' must be facing in a direction opposite the direction of travel of fabric 40 while just the converse is true with respect to the cut pile loopers 111. Also, the loop pile loopers 111' must also rock in an opposite direction from the rock of the cut pile loopers 111, thereby permitting loop pile loopers 111' to engage the respective loops of yarns 121 when the needles 53 are just past bottom dead center and Withdraw from the path of the yarn after the needles 53 have just passed top dead center.

In more detail, the mechanism for accomplishing this purpose includes, as shown in FIG. 13, a cam 102' on shaft 17, a pitman 101', and a lever 103' connected together in the usual way. The lever 193' is connected to shaft 100' to provide the rocking motion upon rotation of shaft 17. The loop pile loopers 111' are carried on the looper block 110' which, in turn, is carried by the ribs such as rib 1138'.

The loop pile looper 111' is essentially a mirror copy of the looper 111 shown in FIGS. and 11, except that no cutting surface is necessary and the ends 115 and 1118 need not be provided.

With such an arrangement, a product such as shown in FIG. is produced having a base fabric 40 with tufts of high loops 160 and low loops 161 aligned transversely and longitudinally of fabric 40.

High-Cut Low-Loop Looper Mechanism If it is desired to provide a high-cut pile, low-loop pile, two separate loopers should be employed, the loopers facing each other. For this purpose, in place of the looper mechanism the machine of the present invention is provided with cut pile looper shaft 200 and a loop pile looper shaft 201 as seen in FIGS. 16 and 17. The two shafts are linked together by levers 202 and 203 extending respectively radially from shafts 200 and 201, a link 204 connecting the two. Cooperating with the cut pile looper shaft 200 is the knife shaft 2115 which is linked to the aforesaid shafts 2130 and 201 by levers 266 and 207 interconnected by link 208. A pitman 2119 operated by the circular earn 211) and connected to lever 211 on shaft 2431 provides power for these shafts. The cut pile looper shaft 2% is provided with the usual cut pile loopers 212 having cooperating knives extending from the knife shaft 205. The cut pile loopers 212 face the travel of fabric 40.

The loop pile loopers 213 on shaft 201 are also of usual construction except that their hooks are arranged above the cut pile loopers 212 so that low loops and high cut pile are formed by the respective loopers 212 and 213. If the hooks of the cut pile loopers 212. were above the hooks of the loop pile loopers 213, the loop 111 would be transferred from one looper to the other, which would result in a high-low cut pile arrangement. Therefore, it is important, according to this particular embodiment, to provide the hook of the loop pile looper 213 above the hook of the cut pile looper 212, unless, of course, high-low cut pile is desired.

The high-cut low-loop pile fabric produced on the particular embodiment here discussed is illustrated in FIG. 19 and includes rows of tufts aligned transversely and longitudinally, each row including successive increments of a single yarn 121 forming high cut tufts 250 and low loop tufts 251 on the base fabric 41).

Close Dispersion Mechanism Referring now to FIG. 18, in the event it is desired to sew the rows of tufts more closely together than the spacing between adjacent needles 53, the rolls 30, 31, 32, 33 and 34 are disposed at an acute angle 0:, about in plan view with respect to the remainder of the machine; and the fabric 41) is fed between the infeed rolls 31B, 31 across the cross bed 11 to the outfeed rolls 32, 33 and 34 whereby the aligned needles 53 insert the aligned transverse rows of tufts at the acute angle on with respect to the line of travel of the fabric 40.

In FIG. 18 the particular arrangement is illustrated diagrammatically since no major modifications to the machine are involved except, of course, arranging the rolls 30, 31, 32, 33 and 34, as aforesaid.

In such an arrangement, the base fabric 411 will be of less width than the usual base fabric employed in the machine, since the transverse distance between the ends of the row of needles 53 projected transversely of the base fabric will be the function of the angle a. Thus, if the distance between the ends of the needles is D and the width of the fabric to be sewn is W, the following formula will set forth the relationship:

W=D cos a X=Y sin a where X is the advance circumferentially for a given needle and Y is the distance between the leading needle and the particular needle involved.

Operation From the foregoing description, the operation of the present multi-needle tufting machine is apparent. First, yarns, such as yarn 121, are fed from a creel (not shown) through each arresting mechanism, between the fingers 132 and the end of the slot 130. Next each yarn 121 is threaded through its needle 53. Thereafter the base fabric 40 is fed through the infeed rolls 30 and 31, across the flanges 13, 13 and over the bed plate 38 and opening 12 to the outfeed rolls 33, 34 and 35, as is customary. Thereafter the motor 22 is energized to drive V-belts 19 and thereby rotate shaft 17. The rotation of shaft 17 simultaneously actuates the rolls 3t 31, 32, 33 and 34 to move the base fabric 411 slowly across the cross bed 11. At the same time, the rotation of shaft 17 causes reciprocation of the needle bar 28 as described above. Also, the rotation of shaft 17 causes both looper shafts .100 and 104 to rock back and forth and the drum 86 to rotate slowly at the peripheral speed of rolls 32, 33 and 34.

of base fabric 40. With all the needles 53 in either the retracted position or the protracted position, the needles 53 penetrate the base fahric dll to a predetermined depth and all needles 53 enter the base fabric substantially simultaneously. With certain of the needles 53 being protracted downwardly, the amplitude of the reciprocation of the needles is not changed; however, the prot'racted needles will enter the fabric 43 slightly before the retracted needles will enter the fabric 4% and will be withdrawn from the fabric 49 after the retracted needles are withdrawn. Also, the protracted needles will penetrate the base fabric to a greater predetermined depth than the penetration of the retracted needles.

The rotation of the drum 85 will move the periphery of the drum 86 with respect to the aligned fingers 91. When a sensing finger 91 is riding on a raised area ill of the periphery of drum 86, the cam member 54 is withdrawn, thereby retracting upwardly its associated needle '53, as described above. Conversely, when a sensing finger 91 is riding on a low portion of the periphery of drum 86, its associated needle 53 will be projected downwardly. Therefore, usually at a given time, some of the needles 53 will be protracted downwardly while others will be retracted upwardly, determined, of course, by the configuration axially along drum 86 at the line of the sensing fingers 91.

When the needles are moved downwardly by the needle bar 28 to the bottom dead center position of the machine, those needles 53 which are protracted will have inserted their yarn loops below the arc of travel of the lower looper hook 114; while, simultaneously, those needles 53 which are in the retracted position will have inserted their yarn loops below the arc of travel of the upper looper hook 116 but not below the arc of travel of the lower looper hooks 114.

As the needles 53 begin to be moved upwardly, the loopers 111 are moved by shaft 100 in a clockwise direction, thereby inserting the upper hook 116 of all loopers 111 between the body of all needles 53 and their respective yarns while, at the same time, inserting the lower hook 114- of the associated looper llll between the yarn and needle body of only those needles 53 which are protracted. Thus, as the needles 53 are withdrawn, the loops so formed are restrained substantially the full length of their insertion by loopers ill, the loops retained on the upper hooks 116 forming short loops and the loops retained on the lower hooks lid forming long loops. As the cycle continues, the loopers 1 11 rock in a counterclockwise direction and move out of the path of the needles 53. With the next and subsequent cycles, additional loops of yarn are formed as described above, and collected on the hooks 114 and 115.

It will be remembered that as shaft 1% rocks, the knife shaft 1% also rocks so as to move the knives 122 in an upward and downward arcuate path such that the cutting edge of each knife 122 cuts those loops which have been'collected on the lower and upper hooks H4 and 116, after the same have been carried by the base fabric 40 to the inner bends 123 and 124. The knife 122, of course, cuts the lower or high loops in its path on the lower hook 114 and shortly thereafter cuts the upper or short loops in its path on the upper hook 116.

It will be understood that the predetermined pattern on the periphery of drum 86 determines whether a loop, to be formed, will be a high loop or a low loop and therefore whether the yarn will form a high cut pile or a low cut pile.

such as shown in FIG. 15, the mechanism is altered to conform to the structures shown in FIGS. 12 and 13.

With the machine operating, the loopers 111' are moved toward the needles 53 immediately after the needles 53 pass bottom dead center and away from the needles 53 immediately after the needles 53 pass top dead center. Thus, the loops of yarns 321 are held by the looper hooks 11 4' and 116 as the needles 53 move upwardly and are released as the needles 5'3 move downwardly, the loops being pulled by the fabric out of the hooks 114 and 116. It will be understood that the loops formed by the projected needles 53 are engaged and held temporarily by looper hooks 1M and the loops formed by the retracted needles 53 are engaged and held temporarily by the looper hooks 116'. Thus, a predetermined pattern formed by high and low loops is produced by retracting and protracting selected needles 53.

If it is desired to produce a high-cut pile low-loop pile, such as shown in FIG. 19, the machine is modified to conform wi h the structure shown in FIGS. 16 and 17. This arrangement permits both the cut pile looper 212 and the loop pile looper 213 to move toward each other between the needle body of a needle 53 and the yarns 121 whereby it the needle 53 is projected the cut pile looper 212. catches the loop and if needle 53 is retracted the loop pile looper 213 catches the loop. Of course, all loops on the cut pile looper are cut by knife 214 while all loops on the loop pile loops-r are subsequently pulled off of the looper as the subsequent loop is formed.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that many variations may be made in the embodiments chosen for the purpose of illustrating the present invention without departing from the scope thereof as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a multi-needle tufting machine of the type having a needle bar reciprocated at uniform amplitude, and a plurality of needles carried by said needle bar for reciprocation therewith to insert yarns through a base fabric fed beneath said needles to form loops, the combination with said needles of control means connected between said needle bar and said needles for protracting and retracting selectively said needles along the path of their reciprocation, means synchronized with the feed of said base fabric for actuating said control means, and looper means beneath said fabric for engaging the loops formed by said yarns.

2. In a multi-needle tufting machine of the type having a needle bar reciprocated at uniform amplitude, and a plurality of needles carried by said needle bar for reciprocation therewith to insert yarns to form loops through a base fabric fed beneath said needles, the com.- bination with said needles of control means connected between said needle bar and said needles for projecting and retracting selectively said needles along the path of their reciprocation, looper means for engaging the loops formed by said yarns, and means for cutting said loops when engaged by said looper means.

3. In a mult-i-needle tufting machine of the type having a needle bar reciprocated at uniform amplitude, and a plurality of needles carried by said needle bar for reciprocation therewith to insert yarns to form loops through a base fabric fed beneath said needles, the combination with said needles of control means connected between said needle bar and said needles for protracting and re tracting selectively said needles along the path of their reciprocation, and means synchronized with the feed of said base fabric for actuating said control means, looper means arranged below said fabric for engaging the loops of yarn on the protracted needles when the loops are in serted through said fabric and for restraining these loops from being withdrawn therefrom upon withdrawal of their needles, and other looper means operating in conjunction with said I'irst mentioned looper means for engaging the loops of yarns on the retracted needles when the loops are inserted through said fabric and for restraining these loops from being withdrawn therefrom upon withdrawal of their needles.

loops.

4. In apparatus for producing patterns with piles in a base fabric, a plurality of aligned needles equally spaced from each other, means for feeding yarns to said needles, means for reciprocating said needles in an axial direction, the reciprocating being of uniform amplitude, means for for passing a base fabric across the path of reciprocation of said needles whereby said needles insert successive loops of yarn in said base fabric, and means for adjusting in said axial direction preselected needles with respect to the other of said needles to insert yarns carried by said preselected needles to a different extent of insertion of said successive loops during the reciprocation of said needles.

5. In apparatus for producing patterns with piles in a base fabric, a reciprocatable needle bar, a plurality of aligned needles on said needle bar, and reciprocated therewith whenever said needle bar is reciprocated and means for individually varying the position of said needles along their axes with respect to said needle bar while said needle bar is reciprocated for protracting and retracting the eyes of the needles along the direction of reciprocation between two fixed positions with respect to the needle bar.

6. In apparatus for producing patterns with piles in a base fabric, a reciprocatable needle bar, a plurality of aligned needles on said needle bar, and reciprocated therewith whenever said needle bar is reciprocated, means for individually varying the position of said needles along their axes with respect to said needle bar while said needle bar is reciprocated for protracting and retracting the eyes of the needles along the direction of reciprocation between two fixed positions with respect to the needle bar, and means individual to each of said needles for restrain ing loops of yarn sewn into a base fabric by said needles.

7. In apparatus for producing patterns with piles in a base fabric, a reciprocatable needle bar, a plurality of aligned needles on said needle bar and reciprocated therewith whenever said needle bar is reciprocated for inserting loops of yarns through said base fabric, means for individually varying the position of said needles with respect to said needle bar while said needle bar is reciprocated for protracting and retracting the eyes of the needles along the direction of reciprocation between two fixed positions with respect to the needle bar, means individual to each of said needles for restraining loops of yarn sewn into a base fabric by said needles, and means for severing said 8. In a multi-needle tufting machine of the type having a frame, a reciprocating needle bar carried by said frame and a cross bed, and wherein fabric is fed across said cross bed for receiving yarn inserted by needles carried by said needle bar, the combination with said needle bar of a block secured to said needle bar, a plurality of plungers slidably mounted in said block, a plurality of fingers extending from said plungers, said plungers and said fingers being connected to said needles for moving said needles, bifurcated cam members carried by said block straddling said fingers, said cam members being provided with camming surfaces for moving said fingers upwardly and downwardly with respect to said block to protract and retract said needles upon movement of said am members, pattern control means connected to said cam members for moving said cam members according to a predetermined pattern, and a plurality of double loopers within said cross bed, said double loopers each including a pair of hooks, one of said hooks being spaced from the other of said hooks to define therebetween an open ended slot, one of said hooks of each looper being adapted to engage and retain the loops of yarn inserted through the base fabric by its needle when the needle is protracted, the other of said hooks being adapted to engage and retain the loops of yarns inserted through the base fabric by its needle when the needle is retracted.

9. In a multi-needle tufting machine of the type having a frame, a reciprocating needle bar carried by said frame and a cross bed, and wherein fabric is fed across said cross bed for receiving yarn inserted by needles carried bysaid needle bar, the combination with said needle bar of a block secured to said needle bar, a plurality of plungers slidably mounted in said block, a plurality of fingers extending from said plungers, said plungers and said fingers being connected to said needles for moving said needles, bifurcated cam members carried by said block straddling said fingers, said cam members being provided with camming surfaces for moving said fingers upwardly and downwardly with respect to said block to protract and retract said needles upon movement of said oam members, pattern control means connected to said cam members for moving said cam members according to a predetermined pattern, and a plurality of looper means within said cross bed adapted to engage and retain the loops of yarns inserted through the base fabric by their needles as the needles are withdrawn.

10. In a multi-needle tufting machine of the type having a frame, a reciprocating needle bar carried by said frame and a cross bed, and wherein fabric is fed across said cross bed for receiving yarn inserted by needles carried by said needle bar, the combination with said needle bar of a block secured to said needle bar, a plurality of guide means slidably mounted in said block, a plurality of fingers extending from said guide means, said guide means and said fingers being connected to said needles for moving said needles axially, bifurcated cam members carried by said block straddling said fingers, said cam members being provided with oamming surfaces for moving said fingers upwardly and downwardly with respect to said block to protract and retract said needles upon movement of said cam members, and pattern control means connected to said cam members for moving said cam members according to a predetermined pattern.

11. In a multi-needle tufting machine of the type hav ing a bar reciprocated at a uniform amplitude and a plurality of needles carried by said bar for reciprocation therewith only along their respective axes to insert yarns through a base fabric fed beneath said needles, the combination with said needles of control means carried by said bar and connected respectively to said needles for projecting and retracting selectively said needles axially along the path of their reciprocation during reciprocation of said bar and said needles for inserting the yarns carried by said needles to different depths in the base fabric.

12. In a multi-needle tufting machine of the type having a bar reciprocated at a uniform amplitude and a plurality of needles carried by said bar for reciprocation therewith only along their respective axes to insert yarns through a base fabric fed beneath said needles, the combination with said needles of cams connected between said bar and respectively connected to said needles for projecting and retracting selectively said needles along the path of their reciprocation during reciprocation of said bar and said needles for inserting the yarns carried by said needles to different depth in the base fabric and pattern means for actuating said cam means according to a prescribed pattern.

13. In a multi-needle tufting machine of the type having a bar reciprocated at a uniform amplitude and a plurality of equally spaced needles carried by said bar for reciprocation therewith to insert yarns through a base fabric feed beneath said needles, the combination with said needles of cam means carried by said bar and respectively connected to said needles for selectively moving said needles axially along the path of their reciprocation during reciprocation of said bar and said needles for inserting the yarns carried by said needles to different depths in the base fabric.

14. In a multi-needle tufting machine of the type having a barreciprocated at a uniform amplitude and a plurality of needles carried by said bar for reciprocation therewith to insert yarns through a base fabric fed beneath said needles, the combination with said needles of cam means connected to said needles for selectively moving said needles along the path of their reciprocation during reciprocation of said bar and said needles for inserting the yarns carried by said needles to different depths in the base fabric, cables connected to said cam means for controlling said cam means, said cables extending from said bar aboutnorrnal to the path of reciprocation of said bar, and pattern means for actuating said cables according to a prescribed pattern.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Rapaport et a1. Feb. 4, 1936 16 Carter Zune 2, 1936 Boyer Jan. 31, 1950 Boyer 12111.31, 1950 Lacey Dec. 15, 1953 MacCaflfray Mar. 12, 1957 Hoeselbarth July 8, 1958 McCutchen Mar. 31, 1959 Hoeselbarth Apr. 29, 1959 Wear Nov. 29, 1960 Dedrnan June 20, 1961 Nowi'cki et al July 4, 1961 

1. IN A MULTI-NEEDLE TUFTING MACHINE OF THE TYPE HAVING A NEEDLE BAR RECIPROCATED AT UNIFORM AMPLITUDE, AND A PLURALITY OF NEEDLES CARRIED BY SAID NEEDLE BAR FOR RECIPROCATION THEREWITH TO INSERT YARNS THROUGH A BASE FABRIC FED BENEATH SAID NEEDLES TO FORM LOOPS, THE COMBINATION WITH SAID NEEDLES OF CONTROL MEANS CONNECTED BETWEEN SAID NEEDLE BAR AND SAID NEEDLES FOR PROTRACTING AND RETRACTING SELECTIVELY SAID NEEDLES ALONG THE PATH OF THEIR RECIPROCATION, MEANS SYNCHRONIZED WITH THE FEED OF SAID BASE FABRIC FOR ACTUATING SAID CONTROL MEANS, AND LOOPER MEANS BENEATH SAID FABRIC FOR ENGAGING THE LOOPS FORMED BY SAID YARNS. 